Update, 10:45 a.m., Nov. 17, 2017: Felipe Abonza-Lopez, the 20-year-old DACA recipient held for a month in detention, is expected to be released today, as per the team at the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, or RAICES. Abonza-Lopez was granted a $7,500 bond by ICE, according to Amy Fischer, the RAICES policy director.

A 20-year-old Mexican immigrant shielded from deportation under the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program remains in detention just south of San Antonio as advocates push for his release.

Felipe Abonza-Lopez was detained Oct. 11 by federal immigration agents in a case that's drawing national attention because DACA recipients are supposed to receive deportation relief under the Obama-era initiative. President Donald Trump has promised that they'd remain protected, unless running afoul of the law, until the program is phased out.

Under DACA, unauthorized immigrants who were brought to the U.S. by their parents received renewable two-year work permits. In September, Trump's administration announced the phase-out of the program that has had as many as 800,000 beneficiaries.

Abonza-Lopez's DACA permit is still current.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said that they arrested Abonza-Lopez on Oct. 11 after a person in the Uvalde area reported a suspicious vehicle. Three passengers in the rear seat "were extremely dirty, common characteristics for subjects walking through the brush for several days," CBP said in a prepared statement.

Abonza-Lopez and the driver of the vehicle were issued a notice to appear before a federal immigration judge and placed in detention under the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, another agency of the Department of Homeland Security.

Abonza-Lopez and his attorneys have asked for his immediate release. The young immigrant, who works for the retailer Amazon, has a bond hearing inside the federal detention center in Pearsall on Nov. 21, said Amy Fischer, the policy director for the public interest law firm the San Antonio-based Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, or RAICES.

((Courtesy of RAICES.))

"ICE has this tendency to do whatever it wants when they think there is no one paying attention," Fischer said. "That is very much what we are seeing here."

Fischer said Abonza-Lopez has no criminal record and has been in the U.S. since he was 5 years old. Federal immigration agents said Abonza-Lopez was picked up as part of a human smuggling investigation as he rode in the car.

Abonza-Lopez has a prosthetic leg with metal screws. In the past, he saw a medical specialist in Dallas. The immigrant, in a letter from the South Texas Detention Complex, said that he was bullied and mistreated there while experiencing sharp leg pains. He said a medical staffer apparently didn't know he understood English.

"The medical guy said in English, 'This is the prosthetic guy, he doesn't need any medicine.' The guard that escorted me to the clinic started laughing and making fun of me. 'You can put a broomstick in his leg and he can use [it to] sweep,'" the letter read.

DACA recipient 20-year old Felipe Abonza-Lopez (A# 204-504-188) is currently in detention. He has a disability and has been denied medical care. Call San Antonio ICE Field Office Director Daniel Bible at (210)-283-4712 to demand his release now! #FreeFelipepic.twitter.com/GejTvotTjX